Pack and Coven (27 page)

He wriggled the covers past her chin. While she was relieved to see his human face peering down at her, she couldn't drag her arms free to rub her eyes. “If you shed all over my new sofa, there's a lint roller in the second drawer in the kitchen.”

“Werewolves don't really shed, thank you very much.” He kissed her nose, his bare shoulders flexing. “How long are you going to sleep? I'm starving.”

“Are you serious?” She bumped her knees, jouncing him in the behind. He had on boxers, nothing else. “You've been in my house a million times and suddenly you can't feed yourself lunch?”

“Dinner,” he corrected cheerfully. “It's five in the afternoon.”

“What?” June tried to sit up but he was too heavy. “Harry, get up, quit fooling around. We have to go. The coven is scheduled to meet at five-fifteen. We haven't discussed anything. Planned what to say. This is a disaster.”

“Yesterday was the disaster.” He propped himself on his elbows and adjusted his lower half atop her more comfortably. “Today is tomorrow.”

Her stomach lurched. She'd slept for thirty hours? It could happen when a witch overextended herself, but what terrible timing! “Oh my gosh, they already met? Why didn't you wake me? I didn't have a chance to get my speech ready and talk to them and—”

He pressed a finger to her lips. “I took care of it.”

“You?” She stopped wriggling to gaze at him in amazement.

“Don't look so surprised.” His golden-brown eyes twinkled. “I can be pretty convincing when I put my mind to it.”

A pack alpha wouldn't hesitate to mold the reactions of people around him. Douglas Householder, who'd seemed like a nice guy, had done it to two car crash victims merely because they wanted to wait for the cops and he didn't agree.

The coven wouldn't respond like a pack afterward, though. They wouldn't take it in stride, part and parcel of the pack experience. They would neutralize anyone who tried to steer them quicker than a cat would pounce on a bug.

Surely Harry hadn't pulled a stunt like that.

“Don't tell me,” June said, “that you pressured them as an alpha.”

He grinned, dimples creasing his cheeks. “Okay, I won't tell you that.”

She loved his dimples, loved the way he smiled at her when he was being naughty. Loved the way he was smiling down at her, loved that he was in her bed, loved how her body was responding even though they needed to have an important discussion about their future.

Loved him.

None of which addressed the matter at hand.

“But did you?” she asked. “Did you lean on them through the bond?”

“Relax.” He inched the blankets down until her neck and chest were free. “There was no need.”

“Why not?” He clearly had his memories, but that wasn't the whole story. What had happened?

“I don't think they had any intention of erasing my memories. They wanted to intimidate me.” He kissed her temple, her cheek and her lips. “I have to subject myself to humiliating magical experiments, though. And I'm not allowed to order anybody around.”

“What does this mean?” She didn't add “for us” because it seemed presumptuous.

“I don't know yet.”

“Should we talk about it?” They'd been friends for years, but they'd only been like this a few days. Sure, she'd told him she loved him when she thought they might never see each other again, but he hadn't said it back.

He didn't say it now, either. Instead of answering, he kissed her, his tongue as sweet as pie and ice cream. June responded with enthusiasm, though she'd rather affirm their relationship verbally than physically.

First, anyway. The physical part could come soon after.

He nuzzled her throat, his lips on the pulse. His tongue flicked out to taste her, and June squirmed beneath him.

She meant to distract him, but her movement rubbed their hips together in a way that left no doubt in her mind where his thoughts had strayed. If they'd strayed. He might have intended to have sex with her from the moment he'd woken her up.

His lips blazed a trail of fire down her chest, teasing her skin at the edge of her nightgown. Slowly he unbuttoned one, then two, then three pearls until her breasts were nearly exposed. His breath tickled her skin.

“Harry,” she protested weakly, “I asked you a question.”

“Mmm.” He closed his lips on her nipple through the thin cotton fabric.

Her headache, even the soreness in her limbs, faded as desire rushed through her. Harry's kisses were superior to willow bark. His teeth scraped her hardened nipple, surprising a moan out of her. He responded by yanking the neckline of the gown aside and closing his hot mouth on her skin.

June's passion soared at the moist suction, as did her temperature. By the time he turned his attention to her other breast, she'd broken out in a sweat.

“It's too hot.” She wriggled until her arms popped free and tried to push the blankets out of the way.

He raised his head. “No such thing.”

She fanned her face. “I've got on a sheet, a blanket, a bedspread, a nightgown and a werewolf. I am melting under here.”

“We can't have that.” In the next ten seconds, Harry remedied her complaints. He hovered over her, both of them naked, a gleam in his eyes.

She trained her gaze on his face, though his body against hers tempted her to look. Touch. Feel. But she gave it one last shot. “Shouldn't we, uh, talk first?”

“I love you too.” Harry smiled. “Now what?”

“I guess we have sex,” she said, content. For now. “Then I'll cook dinner. I think I have steaks in the freezer.”

His lips pressed together and his eyes closed for a moment, as if savoring something delicious. “You are the perfect woman, June. I can hardly express how perfect. I never thought I would find someone like you, or that if I did, you'd love someone like me. You're funny, you're smart, you taste like dessert, you have interesting hobbies and you make me clean up my language. My act. Everything. You're my best friend. When I'm with you, I never feel alone. But I confess, though I've always been a little bit in love with your cooking, I got us some take-out. We just have to heat it up. I thought it would leave us more time for sex.”

And it did. When they finished, their limbs still entwined, their hearts racing, their stomachs growling, she asked, “So what happened at the meeting yesterday? This time I want all the details. What did they say?”

He grinned.

She didn't trust that grin. That grin had just incited a two hour sexual romp, and she truly didn't have the energy for two more hours of…that.

“They said we should set the date for June.”

“Set what date?” The date they planned to erase his memories? Her memories? Why give her and Harry months to fall deeper in love only to take it away?

He laughed. “The date for our wedding. Don't you think someone named June should get married in June?”

They got married in September.